Green, J.; et al. (2019): Large influence of soil moisture on long-term terrestrial carbon uptake

Green, J.; Seneviratne, S.; Berg, A.; Findell, K.; Hagemann, S.; Lawrence, D..; Gentine, P. (2019): Large influence of soil moisture on long-term terrestrial carbon uptake. In: Nature 565 (7740), S. 476–479. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0848-x.

„Although the terrestrial biosphere absorbs about 25 per cent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, the rate of land carbon uptake remains highly uncertain, leading to uncertainties in climate projections^1,2. Understanding the factors that limit or drive land carbon storage is therefore important for improving climate predictions. […] Our results emphasize that the capacity of continents to act as a future carbon sink critically depends on the nonlinear response of carbon fluxes to soil moisture and on land–atmosphere interactions. This suggests that the increasing trend in carbon uptake rate may not be sustained past the middle of the century and could result in accelerated atmospheric CO₂ growth.“

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